Rep. Edward J. Markey is pressing government agencies for full
and immediate declassification of all records concerning the
March 28, 1979 nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile
Island (TMI) now that the 25th anniversary of the event has
passed.

"It is in the public interest to disclose all documents related
to TMI," wrote Rep. Markey (D-MA) in a letter to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission last week.

"Numerous members of the communities living near TMI have been
attempting to obtain these documents for years in order to
ascertain additional details regarding the radiation levels
they may have been exposed to," he wrote.

Under the provisions of the prevailing executive order on
national security classification, Rep. Markey noted, there are
only limited exemptions that would permit the withholding of
25 year old information and these appear to be inapplicable to
the TMI case.

Given the safety and security changes that have taken place
since the TMI accident, he wrote, "there should be no national
or homeland security risk in disclosing any previously
classified materials regarding the cause of an accident that
occurred 25 years ago."

He sent similar letters to the Department of Energy and the
Environmental Protection Agency.

CRS ON THE ROBUST NUCLEAR EARTH PENETRATOR

A new report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS)
provides an update on the pursuit of a new nuclear weapons
concept, the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP).

"RNEP is controversial. Supporters argue that it is needed to
attack hard and deeply buried targets (such as leadership
bunkers or WMD production facilities) in countries of concern,
thereby deterring or defeating challenges from such nations;
critics assert that RNEP would lower the threshold for use of
nuclear weapons and prompt other nations to develop nuclear
weapons to deter U.S. attack," according to the CRS report.

Direct public access to CRS reports like this one is not
authorized by the U.S. Congress.

DOE RELEASES SUPPRESSED CRITIQUE OF NUCLEAR PROGRAM

An internal critique of the Department of Energy's nuclear
weapons stockpile stewardship program was released recently
after being withheld for two years on grounds that it was
considered "For Official Use Only."

The March 2002 report of the National Nuclear Security
Administration (NNSA) Advisory Committee was finally released
last month under the Freedom of Information Act to reporter
David Ruppe of Global Security Newswire.

The Department of Energy terminated the NNSA Advisory Committee
last year, prompting complaints from Rep. Edward Markey and
others that the move diminished independent review of DOE
programs.

The report was analyzed in "Energy Department Releases Nuclear
Policy Critique" by David Ruppe, Global Security Newswire,
April 7:

The Natural Resources Defense Council has provided its own
independent assessment of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex.

"Despite the end of the Cold War, the Bush administration is
spending 12 times more on nuclear weapons research and
production than on nonproliferation efforts to retrieve,
secure and dispose of nuclear weapons materials worldwide,"
the NRDC report found.

The new report "focuses on a half-dozen DOE nuclear weapons
projects, revealing they are billions of dollars over budget
and years behind in meeting their goals."

See "Weaponeers of Waste: A Critical Look at the Bush
Administration Energy Department's Nuclear Weapons Complex and
the First Decade of Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship" by
Christopher E. Paine, April 2004:

"Top-secret information about the design, construction, and
delivery of nuclear weapons has never been more affordable
than it is today, CIA Director George Tenet announced Monday."

That insight comes from a *satirical* account in The Onion
(flagged by CQ Homeland Security).

"We're seeing items like warhead blueprints and uranium
enrichment instructions go for a fraction of what they used to
cost," Tenet said. "There's never been a better time to snag a
deal on low-mass, high-yield weaponry schematics. Countries
like Iran and North Korea are finding that it's a real buyer's
market."